What: The National Football League (NFL) has selected Twitter as its exclusive partner to deliver a live OTT digital stream of Thursday Night Football to a global audience. Separately, Facebook announced that is adding a dedicated video tab as part of a major redesign for live-streaming.Why it matters: Live Streaming, particularly live sports, is posed to become a major business, as digital-social gets a bigger share of it. The deal between Twitter and NFL will help NFL reach new generations who are moving away from TV or web browser content to on-demand sources. The addition of streaming to Twitter could give users new ways to interact with its platform.

The National Football League (NFL) has selected Twitter as its exclusive partner to deliver a live OTT digital stream of Thursday Night Football to a global audience across devices and for free during the course of the 2016 NFL Regular Season.

NFL has selected Twitter as its exclusive partner to deliver a live OTT digital stream of Thursday Night Football to a global audience. [/comillas ]
Twitter will stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by NBC and CBS, which will also be simulcast on NFL Network, securing the league’s “Tri-Cast” distribution model of broadcast (NBC/CBS), cable (NFL Network), and digital (Twitter).

Partners since 2013 through the Twitter Amplify program, the NFL and Twitter will provide free, live streaming video of Thursday Night Football without authentication to the over 800 Million registered and non-registered users worldwide on the Twitter platform on mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs.The partnership also includes in-game highlights from TNF as well as pre-game Periscope broadcasts from players and teams, giving fans an immersive experience before, during and after games.

With this partnership, the NFL has again extended its digital presence, making the most valuable content in sports and entertainment available across multiple digital platforms free for all users.

“Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football”, said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season. This agreement also provides additional reach for those brands advertising with our broadcast partners.”

"This is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today," said Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO. "Now they'll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights."

Last season, the NFL broke new digital ground in a partnership with Yahoo! to deliver a free, global live stream of a regular season NFL game, the first time users could access the NFL’s premium content worldwide, without authentication.When the Buffalo Bills faced off against the Jacksonville Jaguars from London’s Wembley Stadium on October 25, 2015, football fans streamed over 480 million minutes of the game, with 33% of streams coming in internationally, across 185 countries worldwide.

Facebook's Live Streaming Foray

Facebook is rolling out a dedicated tab on Android and iOS, for finding live and archived videos. It’s now the center tab in the app, replacing Messenger. "We really believe that the future is going to be more immersive, and video is a big part of that," said Fidji Simo, product management director at Facebook. The tab includes different sections for broadcasts happening around the world and broadcasts by your friends and the pages you follow. You can also search for videos by topic. Facebook says the tab is rolling out to "a very small percentage" of users; with the rest of the changes rolling out more broadly.

Another sign of how hard Facebook is pushing live video: it is signing deals with publishers to produce a certain number of live videos each month. Facebook is promising to pay some publishers in cash up front and eventually share in revenues generated from the videos, though they are currently not supported by ads. Given the larger size of Facebook's audience, the move could threaten the growth of Periscope, which does not pay any of its broadcasters. Vox Media, which owns The Verge, is finalizing a live video deal with Facebook.

Two years ago, the large-format retail store chain Curacao, headquartered in Los Angeles, began to send out automated emails based on customers’ interactions on Curacao’s website. The results have proven impressive, and Curacao plans to roll out new features offered by its automated emailing tool in the coming months.